Holiday sketches

Lucca’s broad town wall entirely encloses a maze of narrow streets and alleys, stone slabs under foot. There are two towers to be climbed to view the sea of red roofs, Torre Guinigi with its crown of trees and Torre dell’Ore, steps winding up around the huge clock weights – metal-bound lumps of roughly dressed stone suspended in the long central space.

Piazza Anfiteatro shares the footprint of the Roman amphitheatre, whose few remaining bones show through rendered walls.